Founder Effect

Summary: The Founder Effect states that the genetic diversity of an isolated population can be no greater than that of the individuals that founded it--something these interstellar explorers have forgotten.

Awakening

The chamber lights—a single line of high-wattage bulbs that
ran down the center of the long, narrow room—blinked on one by one in quick
procession. The light was reflected off
the frost-covered stasis pods, creating a nearly blinding glare. The automated resuscitation program ran
through its cycles and, one by one, the pods opened. Compressed gas hissed out through the
widening cracks, sending dust devils dancing through the chilly air. As the pods opened,
their occupants—four men and a woman, all wearing charcoal-gray coverall
uniforms—began to stir.

Eve was the first to open her eyes. She was an attractive woman—tall and thin
with long blonde hair and deep blue eyes. She blinked in the agonizing light and stretched in her oblong pod. Her awakening was accompanied by familiar
odors. She was assaulted by the pungent
aroma of stale urine. Robert must have
urinated in his pod again. He always
did. Eve could also smell men—the indescribable
yet undeniable aroma of masculinity—and it made her feel sick. She could smell Ryan’s familiar musty stink.

All around her, the other slumberers were beginning to
awaken. She could hear muffled grumbles—a
pitiful melody of half-sounds that fell well short of intelligent speech—coming
from the pod on her left as Robert started to wake up. On her right, Ryan sat up and rubbed his neck. He was a tall man—quite handsome,
with well-carved features and a head full of shaggy blonde hair. From the far side of the room, Eve heard the
other two men begin talking—their voices full of barely-masked disdain for
their current surroundings—amongst themselves.

“It reeks in here. Why do I always have to wake up to the same sick stink?” was the first
thing out of Messer’s mouth. He was a
large, muscular man. His dark brown hair
was cut so short that he almost looked bald.

“Quit complaining,” was Hanes’ reply. “You know as well as the rest of us that the
Professor always wets the bed.”

Hanes was the largest man among them, outweighing Messer by
at least forty pounds, all of it in muscle. His features were square and hard, as though they had been cut from
stone. His hair was short, sandy blonde,
and cut into a flattop that accented the squareness of his features.

The ship’s heating system did not totally shut down while its
crew was in hypersleep—the coldness of space would have frozen the layer of
dust and condensation that had settled on the pods into an iron-hard sheet of
ice, trapping their occupants inside. Instead, the computers kept the inside of the ship around 200 degrees
Kelvin, far below the freezing point of water but well above absolute
zero. The room temperature cycles were
performed near the beginning of the reanimation program; but the room was still
cold. The crew shivered in their pods. Ryan rubbed the goose-flesh on his arms as he
looked into Eve’s bed.

“Good morning, Sunshine,” he said, trying his hardest to be
charming. He had no idea how much she
hated him. Ever since she had slept with
him, he had been intolerably smug. She
wanted to kill him—to slit his smug throat.

Coming out of hypersleep was like waking up after a night of
binge drinking—the crew felt queasy, disoriented, and hung over. None of them wanted to get out of bed. Eve absentmindedly ran her fingers over the
small of her back, where her collar device had been implanted, where the metal
plate protruded from her spine. It was
cold, like the chilly air in the corridor.

“So why did the computer wake us up this time?” came Messer’s
voice from the other side of the room. “You
don’t actually think the scanners found something do you?”

“Get up, get to the cockpit, and find out,” Hanes responded.

“Yes sir.” Messer
slowly got to his feet. “Damn this floor
is cold!” he exclaimed as his bare feet touched the metal surface of the
floor. Hanes ignored him.

“Quit ignoring me, Princess. I know you’re awake.” Ryan was
quickly growing irritated that the only woman on board was ignoring his
tasteless come-ons. “I might as well go
talk to the Professor over there. He
might be better company.”

“He just might be,” she replied without looking at him.

More muffled mumbles came from the pod on Eve’s left. She sat up and looked into Robert’s bed. He was a short, slender man—with a messy head
full of tangled black hair and a beak-like nose that looked two sizes too large
for his face. He was curled up in the
fetal position, rocking back and forth on his side, and apparently having a
conversation with himself in his own undecipherable version of language. He wore a white lab coat over his char-gray
uniform. It was stained from years of
wear—dark circles of yellowish sweat stains radiated from the armpits, splashes
of food and drool speckled the front, and the tails were stained bright yellow
from rolling around in his own urine.

"Okay everybody, bed time is over. Debriefing in the hangar in ten minutes,”
Hanes said with pronounced authority.

Ryan grumbled and made his way out of his frosty egg-shaped
pod. Eve lifted herself out of her own
pod. Her bare feet slapped against the
cold metal floor as she dropped from her egg-bed. Robert didn’t respond in any way whatsoever—he
was having much too good a conversation with himself to be bothered by the
outside world.

“Get him cleaned up and get his gear on him,” Hanes
commanded Eve. This time, the authority
in his voice was tainted by barely-disguised disgust. Eve remembered the pleasure—the sheer
sadistic delight—in his eyes when he had demonstrated to them, before they had
shipped out, exactly what the collars were and exactly how they worked. He would undoubtedly enjoy zapping one of us,
she thought, seeing us twist in pain as he held his thumb on the button. She did as she was told.

In less than ten minutes, she had Robert on his feet and in
the hangar, where she hoped to find out why she had been brought out of stasis.

Chapters

Lydia Sherrer:
I first read The Speaker almost a decade ago when I first discovered author Sandra Leigh. I loved it then, and I still love it now. It is a simple, easy read, yet deep in meaning and rich in storyline. I do not know what kind of research or prior knowledge Leigh has of First Nation tribes, but sh...

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This is a very interesting book - mostly because the heroine is quite charming and well rounded, and has very real issues to manage in her life. Most of all,. I loved the view inside of the life of a South Asian girl/woman, the emotional self-talk, the customs and preferences, the expectations a...

Hawkebat:
Playing both Kotor I & II and Swtor I found the story line interesting and it held me until chapter 35 Very good story and plot flow until then, very few technical errors. I felt that the main character was a bit under and over powered, as it fought for balance. The last few chapters felt too f...

PaulSenkel:
If you like Arthur C. Clarke's Odyssey, especially The Final Odyssey, then you will probably also enjoy this book. I definitely did.It does, however, address a more adolescent public than the above-mentioned book.I enjoyed the story and finished it in a few days. The overall situation on earth an...

Jasmine Chow:
As I read this story, I was reminded some what of Terry Pratchett, especially some descriptions of politics and economics. The sci-fic setting is quite intriguing. Writing style is quite lovely and grew on me slowly. I was also slightly reminded of Mark Twain, especially his book A Connecticut Ya...

Steve Lang:
I thought this story was imaginative, and well thought out. I also think it was an original piece, and not a rehash of previous scifi stories I've read in the past.Thank you for the effort put into this tale, and I look forward to reading more of your work!

Schaelz:
I was intrigued from the second I started reading, and it kept my interest the whole way through. Chelsea has a way with words that will enchant you until the very end. She is very poetic with the way she mixes genres and keeps you on the edge of your seat. The main character is also very relat...

Raymond Keith Moon:
Great story arc. Nice command of the balance of overview and detail. Feels a bit like a multi-player computer game, but provides satisfying explanations for all the apparent magic. Please keep writing!

Faye Paul:
Rachel Sikkema engages me as she opens wide a window into the troubled soul of Danny; a young man living on the edge of life with whom I truly connect throughout this story of his journey. I sit on the edge of my seat, willing him in his choices, as he navigates the life and death chessboard of d...

Animeviewer:
It is one of the best stories I've ever read. This story will have you riding a roller coaster of emotions and nearly dying to know what happens next.You will get very attached to the characters and in my case I relate well with some of their very traumatic or emotional experiences, Just Juliet f...